The Gift of Being Awkward

So, I decided I'd start coming up with actual titles for these updates because keeping track of the weeks was just too much of a hassle.

This week I learned what an asset being awkward is to a missionary and to general success in life. This week my companion and I found ourselves in a few situations that could have been viewed as very uncomfortable, but we decided to just run with it and make the most of the situations, and they turned out to be pretty good. For example, the other day we were going to leave a note for this woman in one of our wards. She's someone who has helped us out a lot recently, so we wanted to just go leave her a thank-you note expressing our appreciation. While my companion was sticking the note to her car door, the Sister walked out of her house. So Sister Revolorio (my companion) dropped to the floor and this Sister didn't see her; she just saw me standing by myself on the sidewalk. She just looked at me and was like "Um, Sister Judd, where is your companion? Did you lose her and just decide to go off on your own?" At this point I had no choice but to admit that my companion was hiding from her, and then we laughed a bit about it and ended up having a pretty good conversation with this woman about her family and some things she was doing.

A question I have often pondered while serving in Utah is "what constitutes a salad?" This is something that I think about pretty often, and I've even talked and written about it before because it's just not something I ever had to think about before coming here. But the definition of a salad here is much different than what I am used to. Yesterday a couple was describing their favorite salad to us, and it is lime jell-o, with pineapple chunks, pecans, carrots, and grapes... That is not a salad, that isn't even jell-o anymore. My only hope is that they don't force us to eat it tomorrow. I don't think I can. But if the situation arises, I guess I will.

The weather here is a bit crazy as of late. So this is what it looked like when we left our apartment one day:

And this is what it looked like a couple hours later:

So to wrap up, what I have learned this week is that things (like the weather, and food, and people) aren't always what you expect, but they're what you get and so if you learn to love them, it makes life a lot easier and a lot happier. Second, when you're in an awkward situation, you have to just embrace it, laugh it off and do whatever you can. We're not put in situations on accident. There are no accidents. God has planned everything out perfectly so that we can grow and become exactly the person that He needs us to be. If we shrink behind the discomfort then we don't grow and don't take the opportunities to bring light into the lives of those around us.

I love you all! Have a wonder beginning of March!